Contact
by Demonic-Kit
Summary: AU Shepard was on the ship that had the first contact, and now weak and injured she finds herself at the mercy of a strange creature that seems to want to help her, but those teeth say differently. Meanwhile Nihlus wonders what exactly he has gotten himself into with this strange new species.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: AU inspired by a Sharkian with a similar situation I found. If anyone knows the name of it please tell me so I can give it credit.**

**Shepard was on the ship that had the first contact, and not weak and injured she finds herself at the mercy of a strange creature that seems to want to help her, but those teeth say differently. Meanwhile Nihlus wonders what exactly he has gotten himself into with this strange new species.**

Shepard sat down in the armory of the SS Normandy, a revolutionary ship created by all the idiot countries working together to build something great. Shepard breathed through her cigarette before going back to carefully cleaning her sniper rifle. It was a great achievement, but merely a stalling to an end. The human population was growing too fast and couldn't compensate. Though people didn't want to admit it, there wasn't enough food, water, or land to satisfy the greed of man-kind. She sighed as she put a brush down the barrel of the gun to clean out the nonexistent residue. The gun was already clean, but cleaning it brought her peace of mind. This ship, built to move faster than any before it. The trip to Pluto they were making would take a mere few weeks when before it would of taken a few months.

"Commander, there is something up here you really wanna see…" the pilot called over the com.

"It's space, Joker, there is only balls of gas and the occasional rock." she said.

"This isn't a rock…" he said back and Shepard sighed, pushing herself off the table and went towards the cockpit, stopping in her tracks when she saw the strange huge object in front of the ship.

"What the fuck is that…" she muttered and jumped when its center started glowing and the rings started spinning. "Get away from it!" she ordered.

"I'm trying, it is pulling us in." Joker said and tried to get the ship to move away, but it was like a bug attracted to a light.

"Brace yourself!" she called down the bridge into the CIC and the ship lurched. Those who were standing all fell to their asses. "What was that?" she ordered at Joker as she got back up and looked around them. There was nothing, no strange object, nothing… she couldn't even recognize the stars.

"I don't know, we moved, like a lot, this is completely uncharted." Joker said as he tried to pull up communications. "Nothing, just static…"

"Okay, don't panic," she said and went to go down to the star map, but nothing would come up.

"I told you, we are in uncharted territory, there is no map, there is nothing." Joker called on the com to her.

Shepard was silent, trying to think of what to do, so when the ship lurched and several alarms went off she cussed. "What now?" she groaned.

"It's another ship, a big one, and it just shot us." Joker informed her. "Guess hoping it is friendly out of the question."

Shepard rubbed her face. "Get everyone to escape pods; I'm going to send off a distress call." Joker was about to repeat that it was only static, but she cut him off. "It's our only hope; this ship wasn't built for battle."

She ran down the stairs to the crew deck, avoiding everyone running to get to the escape pods. "Shepard!" one of her crew mates, Kaidan if she remembered correctly. "We have room in this pod."

"Go, I'll get another one, I need to send out a distress call." she ordered and they sent off.

WtF

Nihlus sighed as he looked at the report. A patrol received a distress call, only it wasn't in any known language. All that was clear that whatever sent it was in danger and that was from explosions in the background and the tone of the voice. He listened to it again and cringed at the cry at the end. No matter how many times he heard it, it still chilled him to the bone. The voice sounded so defenseless.

His ship beeped to inform him that he was twenty minutes out from the source of the signal and he got up and started to armor up, gathering his guns. He put his helmet on as his ship docked to the wreck. The ship was ripped apart, he would be shocked if anything had lived through it, but that is why he was here, to check. He hit something on his omni-tool and his gravity boots activated and kept him grounded as he went across the docking tube. He sighed as it was clear he would have to keep the gravity boots on, the environmental system completely destroyed. As he thought nothing was alive inside the wreckage, but he shifted through the debris like protocol. Right when he was about to give up, finding nothing alive, a heat signature appeared on his radar. He went over towards it with his gun raised. He moved a fallen beam and looked down at the creature in front of him. It was small, with a red fringe coming out of its head, soft pink flesh covering its exposed skin, a breathing mask strapped around its mouth and nose keeping it alive, but it was pinned by another beam and he was pretty sure its legs weren't supposed to go two different ways so one was probably broken. He grunted as he lifted the beam off and then knelt down beside it. Quickly he took off the barely working breathing mask and replaced it with one he brought and carried it back to his ship.

It needed medical attention, which was clear. He felt the bones in its legs and found which one was the broken one and tried to reset it to lie like the unharmed one. The creature let out a cry and gripped the table he had her on. He looked up at its face and was greeted by two fierce green eyes. Only years of training allowed him to catch its hand as it reached for the pistol attached to its side. He flung it across the room and sighed. If he was in its position he would be scared too. "I'm not going to hurt you," he tried to say non-aggressively, putting his hands up in defense.

It just stared at him, the little fringes above its eyes scrunching down and the lips moving into a thin line. At least it didn't attack him and he pointed down at its leg. It looked at it and cringed, seeing the odd angle. He backed up and got a med-kit out of one of the cabinets. Then he turned back around to it and found that it was gone.

"Damn it…" he muttered and went to find it.

XxX

Everything was black, but she felt someone carrying her and felt relief, the Alliance had found them, she was safe, her crew would be safe. She was vaguely aware of being laid down on something cold and hard, and then the pain, shooting up from her leg. She gripped the table under and snapped her eyes open and down at whatever had caused it, only it wasn't human. She didn't know what it was.

It looked up at her and she went to grab her gun, but it grabbed her wrist with its three fingered hand and ripped her gun away from her and threw it somewhere behind it with its other hand. Her heart raced, unarmed and a broken leg, how was she supposed to fight something that looked to be over seven feet tall and sharp meat eating teeth. And then it let go of her hand and held its up as if in surrender. She burrowed her brow and pursed her lips, trying to decide what this thing was up to.

It moved and she nearly jumped as it pointed to her leg. She looked back at it and cringed at the sight. Her right leg was clearly broken, the foot nearly facing the complete wrong direction. She jumped when it moved again, backing up and turning to get something out of a cabinet. Damn, this thing was cocky to turn its back on her. She pulled a stimulate out of her pocket and jammed it deep into her leg. There was more pain from the needle and then it washed her body over with the pain killers and she got off the table and limped away as quick as she could and went to where she thought the controls to the ship would be. Thankfully it appeared that the creature was the only one on the ship, again it was cocky. She grew up on the streets and would be damned if she would just lie down and let this thing dissect her, probe her brain, inject her with some tracking device, so many of the old UFO stories played through her head. She stumbled into the cockpit and dropped into the seat and tried to see if she could make sense of the controls. She wasn't a pilot, but Joker was one of her best friends since they were both recruits and he taught her a few things over the years. She cussed slightly when everything turned out to be in some strange language—on top of all the buttons being different. Just her luck.

Then she felt the hands on her shoulder and jerking her out of the seat. The creature flung her over its shoulder and carried her back into the main part of the ship like she was a sack of flour, didn't even pay attention to all the punches and kicks with her good leg.

xXx

He knew it was scared, but did it have to be so stubborn, he was trying to help it. He went into the second sleeping quarters on his small one man ship, the one someone accompanying him on a mission would take, and set it on the bed. It trembled and tried to back away from him so he took out a pair of handcuffs and chained it to one of the bedposts. This made it start to kick at him harder, fear clear in its eyes. He sighed and cuffed the good leg to the over bedpost on the headboard, making it be in an uncomfortable scrunched up position. It moved its other leg to firmly keep its legs closed and things fit into place on what was going on in its head. He shook his head and held his hands up. "I'm not going to rape you." he said sympathetically. He hadn't even thought about how this would look to it. It had just been the easiest way to get it to stay still. He pointed down at its broken leg, trying to get it to understand. "I just want to help, that needs to be set, you could get blood poisoning if it is left like that." he said and moved his hands to the leg. It jerked away and he said and forced it to keep its leg still with his weight on its thigh. She struggled against the binds and let out a cry as he twisted the leg to match the other one and splinted it with some of the medical supplies. It was sloppy, but he had to hope he did it right and it would be alright till they got to the Citadel. Hopefully there would be someone there that could help.

He got off the bed and moved around the room, removing anything it might be able to turn into a weapon, anything that wasn't bolted down really, and once it was void of everything he let it go and locked the door from the outside. Hopefully it would just sleep till they got there. He ran a hand down his face plates and settled down in his pilot seat. He set a course to the Citadel and wondered what he had gotten himself into.

**A/N: Review please, this story is still in the creation stage so if I don't get good feedback I might scrap it from a shown lack of interest.**


	2. Chapter 2

Shepard

She watched him as he removed the handcuffs and left, the door turning red so she guessed he locked it. She looked down at her splinted leg. Well she wasn't going anywhere, that was her only stimulate and once it wore off she wouldn't be able to stand at all. She sure didn't look forward to when it wore off, having a broken leg with no form of painkillers, she'd done it before and it was hell. She moved so she was lying down on the bed and tried to get comfortable, but it was stiff as a bored. Since there wasn't anything else to do she let her mind wander to her crew, hoping they were all alright, at the very least she hoped they were all alive.

She didn't know how long she laid there, she had fallen asleep at one point, and as far as she knew the creature hadn't come back. The roof of her mouth and tongue felt so dry it took several seconds for her to work the moisture back into her mouth. She looked over at what she assumed was a digital clock on the wall, but the symbols were alien to her, literally. Damn her throat was still dry, and she was hungry, a cigarette would be welcome too, not to mention painkillers for her leg. Why she was at making a list she also wish she could get a shower, she was still covered in grime from the ship wreck. She also had to pee. A quick look around the room confirmed that there wasn't a bathroom and she groaned and forced herself up. She moved her broken leg off the bed and tried to stand up, but her leg wouldn't hold her and she fell with a cry.

Tears welled up in her eyes and she clutched her leg, trying to hold in her scream. The door opened and she jumped. The creature looked down at her and sighed, moving to pick her up. "I have to pee." she told it.

It looked at her curiously, trying to figure out what she was saying.

"Argh… how do I…" she said and tried to think of how she could explain this without words. "I have to go to the bathroom." she said and pointed to her groin.

It looked to where she was pointing and after a moment it took her out of the room and to another one across the hall, to her relief it had a toilet, at least that was the same thing. It set her down, supporting most of her weight as it was clear to both of them she couldn't stand. She undid her pants and with its help sat down on the toilet. It let her go and turned around politely. "Thanks." she said and started to go. Once she was done she tapped it and it turned back around. She pointed to the shower beside the toilet and it nodded and started to take its armor off. Yeah she would still need its help, but it was the only way she was going to get clean.

It removed the top half of its armor and then pulled off its gloves, revealing sharp talons. She shivered at the sight of them and it held out its hand for her to see. She took it and looked the claws over. It gripped her hand, careful of the claws and she nodded in understanding. It wouldn't hurt her. It continued to strip down, carefully stacking its armor off to the side, until it was down to only a pair of under armor pants.

She looked at it, all the plates and the raised ridge around its shoulders. "So… I'm going to take a shot in the dark here and say you are a guy." she said and he just stared at her. "Because you go topless, but kept your pants." she explained even though he couldn't understand her.

He chirped something, his mandibles flaring slightly.

She smiled back at him in reflex before pulling her pants down her legs, needing some help getting them off over the splint, then pulled her shirt off, then her bra, leaving her completely bare. She should be more embarrassed than she was, but she had been showering in front of crowds for years, being in the military meant little privacy sometimes. He helped her up and moved them over to the shower and he turned the water on. She leaned back against him and let the hot water pour down her front. She looked up at him and found him staring at her and she covered her chest with her arms. He looked away quickly and she went back to scrubbing away the grime with her hands.

He turned off the water when it ran cold and helped her dry off with a rough towel. Her clothes needed washing and he seemed to understand that too because after dropping her off into her room he left and came back with one of his under armor shirts and pants. He helped her put it on and it was big, but at least it was clean.

Once she was dressed he just stared at her, one of his hands brushing against her hair, letting the wet strands through his fingers. She watched him just as carefully. He let her hair fall and pointed to himself. "Nihlussss," he said slowly.

"Nihlus…" she repeated and he nodded. "Your name is Nihlus? Or your species… We'll go with name." She pointed to herself like he had. "Shepard." she told him.

"Shay-pur?" he said and she shook her head.

"Shep" she said to break it down.

"Shep," he repeated.

"Ard, Shepard."

"Ard… Shepard." When she nodded he smiled.

"Can I have some water?" she asked and then remembered he couldn't understand her, but she had an idea and squeezed her hair and collected a bit of water in her head. "Water." she said and pointed at it and then made a motion like she was drinking from a glass.

He stared at her for a bit before he left and came back with a cup of water, well it was kind of a glass, it had a weird top, probably for his lipless mouth. She took it though and drank it with spilling as little as possible.

"Water," he repeated and she smiled at him and he couldn't help but smile back. Maybe if they could learn to understand each other she could find out what happened to her crew. She hoped they were alright.

Nihlus

He had just gotten up on the second day after his strange guest joined him when he heard it cry. He quickly went to the door and opened it to find it on the floor. He sighed and picked it up, and to his surprise it didn't flinch, instead it spoke. Its language was a lot harsher than turian, but it had a strange appeal to it, he liked it. However, he blinked at it when it pointed to its groin and after a moment he thought he might know what it wanted and took it to the bathroom. He set it down, careful to keep a tight grip on it so it wouldn't put weight on its hurt leg again. To his relief it started to undo its pants and he helped it sit down on the toilet, then turned around to try and give what he now was pretty sure was a female some privacy. He had guessed it was a girl before, because of the chest being similar to asari, but now he was sure as the glimpse he caught showed that she had very similar parts to a turian female.

She said something before he heard the sound of water hitting water in a stream. Once it stopped he felt her tap his elbow. He turned back around and she pointed at the shower. He nodded, yeah if he had been in a ship wreck like that he would want a shower too. So he started to take off his armor. He undid the clasps keeping his armor together and stacked it in the corner, but when he got to his gloved and took them off he saw her shiver. He held his hand out for her to see, trying to show her that he wasn't going to hurt her. She turned his hand this way and that and he moved to grip her hand, careful of his claws like any good turian was, and when she gave a nod he took his hand away and continued to strip.

He left his under armor pants on, not wanting to freak her out again. She just sat there and stared at him and he let her, he had nothing to hide, a lot of women thought he was attractive with his dark plates and his built body, so being stared at was a common thing. It also didn't help that he was a Spectre, which tended to have the ladies flock.

Her speech brought him out of his conceded thoughts, but she didn't make any gestures to give him any hints as to what she said. "Oh sure, sit there and stare at me and don't even give me a hint if you like what you see." he teased with a smile and she smiled back, her lips turning up and revealing a few white teeth.

Then she started to strip and he couldn't help but watch, more out of curiosity than anything perverted. He helped her get the pants off past her splint, afraid that she would hurt herself. Her body was covered in the pale pink flesh; it made her look so exposed. Now that he could see everything he made several comparisons between her and an asari, but before she could realize he was staring he helped her up and practically carried her into the shower part of the bathroom and turned the water on warm for him, not wanting to burn her tender pink flesh. She sighed and leaned back against him and he shifted to keep her up, looking down at her as the water made trails past her breasts. They looked like asari, even had the little raised centers, which meant they nursed their young so this was definitely a female. Her arms moved in front of her chest and he looked back at her face and gave her an apologetic chirp, but it was clear she didn't hear it, and he turned his head away. So their hearing range wasn't as broad as turians. He would have to write all his down on his datapad later.

He wished he had some soap or something she could use, but he only had his and it would scratch up her skin. He sighed went the water went cold and hoped she was clean as he turned off the water.

"You need clean clothes…" he muttered as he helped her dry off with a towel and then carried her back to the bedroom. "I might have something that wouldn't be too big on you." he muttered to himself and went into his room across the hall and a door down. He shifted through his wardrobe until he found his smallest pair of pants and shirt. They would still be big on her, but at least they were clean. What creature managed to dominate their planet covered in no natural defense or weapon and nowhere near six foot was beyond him. This girl was probably barely five and a half feet.

He was right, the clothes were way too baggy on her, but he rolled up the pants so she wouldn't be walking on it and then stood back to look at her, barely containing his laughter at how cute she looked. He reached forward and ran his fingers through the interesting cowl on her head, now soaked with water. It was so interesting, before the shower it had been so light and individual strands, but wet it was heavy and clumped together.

He left the dark red clumps fall and pointed to himself. "Nihlus." he said slowly.

"Nihlus…" she repeated and he nodded. "Jksl idof wk Nihlus? Tl jksl gkwlei… Gkwl oa dkls idof" At least she understood that his name was Nihlus, the rest of what she said was gibberish to him.

She pointed to herself, "Shepard." she said and he tried to mimic the sounds, but obviously didn't get it right so she slowed it down into two parts. When he got it right she smiled and nodded.

"Alg w algk dlgw algki?" she asked and he just stared at her until she squeezed her cowl and held out her palm now covered in water. "Algki." she repeated and made a motion like she was drinking something.

He stared at her before he left into the mess and got a glass of water, wondering if she could even use the kind of cup. And also hoping she didn't ask for food, as he didn't know if she was levo or dextro in DNA and he didn't want her having a reaction to whatever he guessed.

"Algki," he repeated and she smiled at him and he couldn't help but smile back. Hopefully they could maintain this understanding until they reached the Citadel in a few days.

Shepard

Shepard groaned as her stomach let out a growl. She was starving. Going off of when she slept it had been three days since the shower and Nihlus still didn't give her anything to eat. And her leg was always burning up and throbbing, but she was too weak to sit up and take a look at it. She just wanted food, she had tried to tell Nihlus, but he always shook his head when she tried to act out eating something. Why would he put so much effort into saving her just to let her starve to death.

The door opened and she turned her head to look at it. "Food…" she muttered weakly and he sighed and shook his head sadly, saying something in his language and went over to her with a cup of water. He held her head up and helped her drink it. "Why won't you give me food…?" she asked and put a hand on her stomach as it let out another growl.

He looked down at her sadly before messing with her broken leg, making her cry out in pain. She tried to cringe away from his touch, but her leg wouldn't move. He kept touching it, examining it up and down. Then he got up and left.

She watched him leave and let out a weak sob and wiped the cold sweat off her forehead, slowly drifting off into sleep.

Nihlus

He coaxed his ship to go just a bit faster, pushing it to its limits to get them to the Citadel, but it was still about two days away. He slammed his fist down on the arm of his chair. They would be there if he hadn't had to go so far out of the way to refuel. That was his bad, he thought that he would have enough to make it there, and when it was clear they didn't he had to backtrack half a day's flight to the nearest fuel station.

He turned to look down the hall with the sleeping quarters and got up to give her some water. He filled the cup and stared at it for a minute. If they didn't get there soon she would either starve or die from her leg. It had gotten infected and he didn't know what to do to treat it. It was beat red in tendrils all the way up to her thigh and where the break was had a sickly puss green color to it. Her body temperature was also steadily rising. He sighed. Hopefully she could hang on a few more days.

He went into the room and looked sadly at her. She was obviously very ill, it broke his heart to see her like this, so defenseless. She muttered a word to him and he recognized it as the word that meant food and he shook his head. She had been asking him that for days, but he couldn't risk her having a reaction in her state.

"I can't… If I give you the wrong kind you could die." he said, wishing she could understand.

He moved to sit beside her and held her up so she could drink and after he set her back down she said something to him, he wasn't sure what exactly, but he heard the word for food again and shook his head. He moved to check on her leg, letting out a low apologetic coo when she cried. The red was slowly working its way up her leg and was worrying him. The green had also gotten worse and was getting bigger. It clearly needed to be drained. His mandibles twitched in thought before he left.

He sat in the kitchen with a scalpel from his small med-bay and tried to convince himself that he needed to do this for her own good. More importantly he needed to find a way to convince her that it was for her own good, he didn't want her freaking out if he came at her with the scalpel. He gritted his teeth as he grabbed a few towels and a bowl of water and went back into the room.

She was sleeping so he handcuffed her hands to the headboard and sat on her uninjured leg. Hopefully that would keep her still if he did freak her out. He put one of the towels under her leg and then moved the scalpel to the discolored green area. "Sorry," he said before he cut into the flesh.

He felt her jolt awake, but he was too busy wiping up the foul smelling puss that poured out of the wound to look at her. He dipped a rag in the water and wrung it out over the cut to wash away what he could, then pressed down on the raised green flesh around the break.

She screamed in pain and thrashed against the binds, but he kept the pressure on, forcing more of the puss and blood out of the wound. The smell alone made his stomach churn, but the sight was just as horrible, a puss that varied from an orange liquid to thick clumps of yellow and everything in-between.

"It'll make it feel better," he tried to sooth her, his sub-harmonics sending out a constant low coo in apology for hurting her. Why he had such a soft spot for this girl he had no idea.

He soaked the rag again and wrung the water out over the wound and wiped away the puss, then repeated it, turning the water a rancid orange color. She didn't scream again as he worked, but whenever he touched it she would whimper and he would coo. Once only blood would come up he wrapped it up in a gauze and gave her an apologetic look, but she had fallen back asleep. He sighed and brushed her fringe out of her face. "Hang on…" he pleaded and left the room.

**A/N: This chapter is a lot longer than the last, and it is still a short chapter for me. Once things get moving a bit more they will grow in length. I would like to thank you guys for the good feedback and I had someone tell me the name of the fanfic that inspired this. It is called "The Final Frontier" by jambajunkie. You guys should go read it. Anyways review please, I love seeing if you guys are liking it, what I can improve on, ect.**


	3. Chapter 3

"This is Spectre Nihlus requesting permission to land." he said over the com to the Citadel. He had pushed his ship and got gotten there in a day and a half, but Shepard was still getting worse.

"Welcome back Nihlus, the Council has told me to inform you that they wish to speak with you about your last mission." a voice responded after a second. "You have been cleared to land."

"Tell them I will as soon as I can, but I have something I need to attend to." he said and cut off the com before any rebuttal could be given. He docked his ship and then went to check on Shepard.

She was passed out on the bed, just like she had been the last time he checked on her a few hours ago, when he had forced her to drink some more water, but she got little of it in her state. "Hang on, you'll be better soon." he said and left.

He went straight to the hospital and went to the receptionist's desk. "Hello, how may I help you?" the asari asked politely.

He leaned on the counter and kept his voice low, didn't need everyone finding out he was bringing a new species onto the Citadel, too much havoc. "I need a doctor, your best doctor, to come back to my ship with me, I have someone who really needs medical attention." he said.

"Why not just bring him in? All of our medical equipment is here, we are not made for house calls." she said, suspicious.

He sighed, "She can't just come here… its complicated." She looked even warier. "Look, I'm a Spectre, if I could tell you what this was about I would, but it's… a delicate situation." he tried, but she didn't seem to be buying it.

"Sir, if you just bring your friend in we can treat her." she said and that was final.

He growled and left, going back to his ship and collecting Shepard up in his arms. If they weren't going to come back with him he'd take her to them, the council would have his head, but at least she would be alright. He bundled her up in a blanket, trying to conceal her and left his ship. The blanket didn't work as well as he hoped, right off the bat people saw him carrying something, someone, and they started whispering. He ignored them and made it to the elevator and hit the button for the floor the hospital was on.

"Nih…" she muttered weakly in his arms.

"It's going to be okay." he said and cradled her against him. "It'll be okay, Shepard, I'm going to get you help."

The elevator pinged and opened to let some other people heading down too on and he backed into the corner. It was a pair of salarians, and typical of their species their curiosity of what he was carrying got the better of them.

"Is that a body?" one asked and Nihlus glared at him.

"No, she is sick, I'm taking her to the hospital." he replied sharply.

The other one recognized him. "Wait, you're Nihlus, the Spectre."

He gave a short nod and both of their faces lit up.

"So is that another Spectre, did she get hurt in some heroic fight?" the first asked and moved aside the blanket to get a look at her, jumping back. "What the… what is that?" he asked frightened. The other one just stared at the strange pale creature with the red fringe.

"A very sick girl." Nihlus replied and shifted the blanket to cover her back up.

Both just stared at him as the elevator pinged for the hospital and he got off and started pushing his way through the crowds. When he finally made it he set Shepard down on a gurney and turned to the asari receptionist. "I brought her, now help her." he nearly demanded.

The woman called for a doctor and then got up to take a look at girl wrapped up out of sight. "What is the nature of her injur—what is that?" she shrieked as she pulled the blanket back.

Her tone caught the attention of everyone in the waiting room and they all started crowding to get a look at the new species. "She is sick, that is all that should matter." Nihlus snapped at the woman and tried to keep people back from her. "Damn it all," he cursed and grabbed the gurney and pushed it into the ER himself.

"Sir, you can't go back there!" the woman tried to reason.

"Spectre authority." he snapped back as the door swung shut behind him. He nearly ran into a salarian doctor. He knew this doctor. Mordin Solus. He remembered him from some talk awhile back about making him a Spectre, but the good doctor had denied, several times.

"Ah, Nihlus." he said and pulled the blanket aside to reveal Shepard, who was panting heavily and shivering despite the sweat collecting on her brow. "Figured it would be something big when heard you stopped by." He took the gurney from him and carted her into the ER.

Nihlus kept pace with him. "I found her on a wrecked ship, she has a broken leg, red tendrils have been making their way up her leg by several inches a day and it's getting faster, it's already up to her stomach. There was also a green color to the break so I drained several pounds of puss from it that varied from orange liquid to yellow clumps." he said quickly, relaying all the information he could.

"Thank you. Will take it from here." Mordin said before other doctors stopped him at the entrance to the surgery room.

Nihlus stared at the door for several long seconds before he turned. "I want to be notified when she leaves the ER." he said before heading to the council, preparing himself to be chewed out for creating such a ruckus.

TdC

"We expect more rational action from you, Nihlus." the turian councilmen, Councilor Velarn lectured him. How he hated to be lectured by other turians. He was never a very good turian, but what "good turian" would ever want to become a Spectre? Turians were all about following the rules of those above you, Spectres were all about saying fuck you to the rules and getting the job done, which is what he did when he brought Shepard to the hospital. "You brought an unknown species onto the Citadel. It could be hostile, it could be infected."

"I have had Shepard on my ship for nearly a week and I am not ill, and she understands that we are trying to help her. She is scared, but not hostile." Nihlus defended.

"Shepard? She? You can't even understand it, how can you possible know its name or gender?" the salarian councilor piped in, Nihlus never could remember his name.

"She told me her name… or it might be her species… She pointed to herself and said Shepard, at any rate it is something to refer to her by." The salarian went to say something again and Nihlus cut him off. "And calling her a female is more of a guess. I've had to help her bath and her anatomy is similar to that of a female turian and a female asari." His omni-tool beeped and he rudely looked at the message. "She is out of surgery, I'm going to make sure I'm there when she wakes up." he said and the Councilor Verlarn went to speak, but again Nihlus cut him off. His patience for dealing with them was wearing down. "If she is hostile it would be best for the one familiar face she knows to be there." and with that he left.

Shepard

She groaned as something kept shifting her back, pulling her out of her sweet drug induced slumber. It was great to feel them going through her system, numbing the throb in her leg and the constant itching to have her lungs be filled with nicotine. Whatever kept shifting her needed to stop. She cracked her eye open and was blinded by all the bright white lights. She drew in a deep breath as the pain in her body returned, the drugs not strong enough to numb her aware mind. A blue face looked up at her shocked. She had a moment of relief that it was human, that the strange creature that she had spent the last week with was a strange dream, that she was home, safe on Earth. And then everything fully came into focus and it was clear this thing wasn't human. She jumped away from the strange blue hands on her and fell off the bed. She let out a cry as her leg jolted. It was wrapped up in a clean white cast. She ripped the needle out of her arm and held it in front of her at the blue creature, murder in her eyes.

The alien backed out of the room, but the relief was short lived as it came back with a familiar toothy face behind it. Nihlus quickly took the needle away from her, it having no effect on the thick armor he always seemed to wear. He picked her up and set her down on the bed and kept a firm grip on her shaking shoulder. The two aliens had a conversation and then the blue one left.

"Nihlus…" she said quietly. "What the fuck is going on."

He looked down at her and stroked her hair, chirping something at her. Another alien came in, a different looking one this time, short and thin with a slight hunch, it reminded her of salamanders. Nihlus looked at him before leaving and stepping outside of the room. And now she was alone in the all white room. Well damn it all if she was just going to sit here. She stood, using the bed as support so she wouldn't have to use her broken leg, and hobbled over to the door, looking out the window to see Nihlus standing next to the salamander and looking over a handheld screen with symbols scrolling past it. The blue alien came back with a tray of food and went to open the door, jumping as she saw Shepard's face pressed up against it. Nihlus turned and it looked like he laughed. He handed the handheld screen back to the salamander and opened the door, catching Shepard as she almost fell. Then he picked her up and carried her back to the bed. The blue one put the tray of food on a table beside the bed and moved it so it was over Shepard. She swallowed at the sight of the food and, despite it all looking horribly un-tasty, tore into it, just enjoying having something into her stomach.

"Levo?" she heard Nihlus ask the blue one and it nodded. He nodded and moved to sit beside the bed again.

Nihlus didn't leave her side for very long all day, which Shepard was grateful for. She knew that Nihlus wouldn't hurt her, if he wanted to he would have already done so, he had plenty of opportunities, but she didn't know what to say about the others. The salamander, Mordin as Nihlus had told her, talked really fast and it hurt her head to try and keep up with anything he said, she wasn't even sure if there were words in there, his speech didn't sound anything like Nihlus'. The blue girl was her nurse from what she had gathered, but the poor girl wouldn't go near her without Nihlus there, she must have really scared her.

When the lights finally went off in the hospital she looked to Nihlus, whose markings and eyes were the only thing visible in the dark. "Please stay…" she asked pathetically. He seemed to understand before he nodded and held her hand until the drugs kicked in and she fell asleep. It was actually a cool system. If her heart rate got to high it would give her a dose of the medicine, as well as giving her regular doses throughout the day. The dose that followed the lights going out was a larger one than the others and she felt it numb her pain and sent the darkness crawling at her vision until she was completely out.

Nihlus

He made it to the room Shepard was in right as an asari nurse rushed out of it. She looked to him and quickly explained that Shepard had woken up and was using the needle from her IV as a weapon. He sighed as he went in and took the needle away from her and put her back in the bed. She was shaking so he kept hold of her shoulder as the talked to the asari. "Can you go get her something to eat and go get Mordin?" he asked and she nodded and quickly left.

Mordin showed up not long after and Nihlus left the room with him to go over Shepard's medical file.

"Definitely female. Levo too, good idea not to feed her. As far as can tell she is not allergic, but in weakened state… could have been bad. Leg was severely infected and blood poisoning was progressing. Another day and she would have been dead." Mordin filled him in. "Gave powerful antibiotics and a bone weave. Should be fully healed in a few weeks based off her body's ability to heal. Also will have a linguist asari come by and merge minds, quickest way to learn and upload her language into the omni-tools." he said as Nihlus read through the report.

He heard the asari nurse gasp and turned to look, laughing when he saw Shepard looking out the window on the door. He chuckled and handed the datapad back to Mordin and opened the door. Shepard started to tip back, not stable on her broken leg, and he moved to catch her, carrying her back to the bed bridle style.

The asari set down a try of food on the little table and moved it so it was over the bed, and Nihlus felt so guilty at how Shepard tore into the food. He had basically starved her, even if the doctors agreed with his decision it still was cruel, she didn't know why he did it. "Levo?" he asked the asari about the food, just to make sure, and the asari nodded.

Nihlus stayed with her for the rest of the day, minus the occasional summon for him by the council where he quietly stepped out and gave reason after reason of why he couldn't leave her side for now.

Mordin came in every now and again to check on her and Nihlus told her his name. And to pass the time he let her play on his omni-tool, he had a game where you just tried to keep the ball from going off the screen with a beam you moved around in a circle. It was mindless and easy and she seemed to be enjoying it, and getting pretty good at it. To make it easier he was sitting on the bed beside her with his right arm out across her, the omni-tool up and glowing. He shut it down about an hour to lights out and moved back to the chair so that the nurses could get her ready for the night.

The lights went off and the IV gave a beep to signal the morphine being injected into her. She was looking right at him and it made him wondering how good her night vision was. Turians could pretty much see in the dark, but salarians were pretty much blind in the dark. He heard her whisper something past the drugs and after a moment he nodded and took her hand until she fell asleep. He had planned on leaving at that point and going back to his small apartment on the Citadel, but every time he tried to leave she would tighten her grip on his hand in her sleep and how could he deny that? So he leaned back and slept in the uncomfortable chair.

**A/N: So this is only a six page chapter but damn it all if it wasn't confusing to write. I kept having to go back to Shepard's part to make sure Nihlus' matched up. It also didn't help that in making my new cosplay I burned the tips of two of my fingers with a hot glue gun, typing is a bit painful. Oh and for my follows from DWBUA I hope you are enjoying my new project.**


	4. Chapter 4

Shepard let out a bored sigh. She had been stuck in this bed for two weeks, Nihlus came and went and when he was gone she had absolutely nothing to do. At least when he was here she could play on his little arm computer thing. Nihlus had called it an omni, whatever that meant. She frowned and with a glance at the door she swung her legs off. She pushed herself off the bed and onto her good leg. Her right was still in a cast, but it didn't hurt that much and seemed to be healing faster than should be possible. Logically she should still be bed ridden or at least unable to move without crutches, but here she was, slowly putting weight on the leg as she had done a few times in between nurse checks.

She limped over to the door to the bathroom and reached up and grabbed the door frame and started doing pull ups. Damn it all if she was just going to lay in a bed bored and like her muscles atrophy away. She worked too hard to get where she was, she wasn't going to back slide now.

The nurse came in while she was still going and the blue girl let out an eep, hitting a button to call the doctor. But she stepped away from the door and Shepard saw her chance. She bolted past her and ran through the hospital. Everyone she past just stayed at her, making her want to run faster to get away. There were all different kinds of aliens, even some she hadn't seen yet, but there wasn't time to sit and stare. A door slide open to her left and she recognized it as an elevator and slammed into it, scaring the salamander alien that was inside. Shepard grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back and pushed her out before slamming her hand down on a button. Any button, she just hoped it would take her to some kind of loading dock, or the exit, or something.

She leaned against the back of the elevator, panting hard. Now that the drugs and adrenaline where wearing off she could feel that her leg did still hurt, a lot, but there wasn't any turning back now. Nihlus had been nice to her, but they couldn't understand her and she needed to go find her crew. Who knows how long it had been while she was out, they could all be dead. Her hands tightened into fist against the cold metal behind her. She couldn't think like that, she had to keep her head in the game. Failure wasn't and option.

The door pinged and opened and she bolted out. Everyone stopped and stared at her, whispering, screaming, she didn't care, all she cared about is that they got out of her way.

Then one that looked like Nihlus didn't get out of her way, actually he pulled a gun. She skidded to a halt feet from him, sliding back on her left leg, her left hand skimming on the ground behind her, and then she was off again to her left, stunning the alien with the speed of it. She ran off through some civil area and looked around to try and find out which way the docks would be. This place was clearly some sort of station, some sort of huge station, it had to have ships.

She was so busy looking that she didn't notice the Alien in front of her until she slammed into him, falling back onto her ass. He kept his gun pointed on her, sniper rifle by the looks of the barrel. She let out a tremble before she grabbed the barrel of the gun and twisted it out of his grasp. He growled and fought to keep grip on it, finally managing to beat her off, but she was back on her feet and that is what mattered. Before he near what happened she was already sprinting further down the civilian ward, sliding over a police car as it touched down in front of her. Yeah, touched down, their cars could fly. They shouted at her, but she grinned, she was going to get away. And then she fell. Gripping her leg in pain as blood poured out from a bullet wound. She looked up to see which one had shot her, and locked eyes with smug pale blue ones. The sniper. Damn it.

Nihlus

Nihlus had been seeing a supply of levo food onto his ship when his omni-tool pinged and he got a message from C-Sec that Shepard had escaped from the hospital and was causing a disturbance, apparently she had already broken the arm of a salarian at the hospital and C-Sec was authorized to use lethal force to put her down. He growled and shoved the datapad to the dock worker and rushed off to her last known location.

Once he picked it up her path was easy to follow, just follow the path of shocked people standing with their mouth opens. He made a final turn and saw Shepard sliding over the hood of a C-Sec car. She was out of ear shot though so he had to get closer. "Don't worry, she isn't going anywhere." a C-Sec turian said as he pointed a sniper at her.

"Don't," Nihlus said and grabbed the barrel of the gun right as it went off. He watched as Shepard went down and stood there shocked at the C-Sec went to join the rest of his group.

He followed after a minute and pushed his way through the group as one of the turians held Shepard by her fringe and she spat up at him, landing it on his armor. He growled and shoved her back down and Nihlus returned the growl with one of his own. "Let her go, Spectre authority, if anyone harms her I will see their badge hanging on my wall." they all froze and looked up at him, the one holding Shepard dropped her and he moved quickly to catch her, setting her down gently. Then he turned to the sniper that had shot her. "What is your name?" he barked at him, his mandibles flaring in rage.

"Garrus Vakarian." the sniper replied shortly.

Nihlus sneered, "Oh, you're Vakarian, the failed Spectre."

Garrus growled, "I didn't fail, I turned down the training." he barked and Nihlus couldn't help but smirk at how this boy turned against his natural instincts to tell him off, too bad he turned the training down, he would have been a pretty good Spectre.

However, that didn't mean he wasn't pissed that Garrus had shot Shepard. He gripped the front of his ridge and jerked him down to eye level. "Who gave you orders to shoot someone under my protection?" he growled and the rest of the turians flinched, but not Garrus.

"Pallin, the head of C-Sec," he replied calmly.

Nihlus shoved him back. "You are lucky I don't take your badge, I'm above C-Sec." he growled.

"I got the job done," Garrus barked. "Who cares if I stepped on some red tape?"

"You didn't step on any red tape, you had orders, but you crossed a Spectre." Nihlus said and turned to pick Shepard up. "And next time you do I will turn your badge into a pair of fringe rings."

Shepard

Shepard grunted as she was picked up roughly by hair by one of the spikey aliens and spat on its armor. The turian was about to slam her back down when they all froze and turned to face one of them. It was Nihlus. She watched as he seemed to bark orders at them and they all listened and backed off. 'Who are you…' she thought as she watched him chew the sniper out and then come to pick her up. She locked eyes with those pale blue ones again and then raised up her hand and flipped him off with her middle finger, getting weird looks from all the aliens.

He brought her back to the hospital and Mordin started working on her leg as Nihlus fiddled with his omni. He gave a face that she guessed was something close to dread and annoyance as he hit a button and a voice came through on it. He spoke back to it, getting cut off several times and eventually he stopped speaking and listened. He barked one last thing at the voices before shutting it off and turning to Mordin, who already started moving quicker. Mordin told him something and Nihlus turned to the bedside table and found a small chip.

Mordin said something else and Nihlus nodded before grabbing Shepard's right arm and putting the disk against the underside. She looked at him confused before there was pain and the chip burrowed under her skin. She tried to jerk her arm away, but Nihlus held her fast and the pain vanished and was replaced with a numbing sensation. She jerked her arm one more time and Nihlus let get go and messed with his omni again a bit as Mordin talked to him, his hands busy wrapping up her leg.

And then Nihlus picked her up again and left the hospital in a hurry. What was going on?

Nihlus

Nihlus took her back to the hospital where Mordin was already waiting for them and started working on her leg, repairing the damage from the bullet wound. He watched until his omni beeped and he brought it up to see a bunch of messages from the council, as he was reading them they called him and proceeded to chew him out.

"Do you know the mess you have made?"

"It injured at least one person."

"That thing is not staying on this station, it is obviously too aggressive to function in society, we will find out where it came from and disable the Mass Relay."

"And Shepard?" Nihlus asked.

"Your pet will be put down."

Nihlus growled and shut the omni-tool off and turned to Mordin. "Can you go faster, I need to get her to my ship ten minutes ago." he asked and Mordin sped up.

"Look on table. Omni-tool chip, modified it to work with her. Synced up with yours, you can add in words to translator as learned. No time to have asari come sadly, still couldn't find one willing." Mordin said as Nihlus picked up the chip and proceeded to put it into Shepard's arm, holding her still until it was fully in place. "Will take a few hours to fully set it." Mordin warned him as he finished.

"That you, Mordin, for everything." Nihlus said as he scooped Shepard up and started towards his ship, trying to avoid crowds.

It took a lot longer than normal because he had to dodge C-Sec that were already looking for him, under the council's orders this time, which he couldn't overrule like C-Sec's. They finally made it to the loading dock and he cursed as there were three C-Sec officers waiting for him, including Vakarian. He growled and still walked up to the ship, being circled by the officers to try and block an escape.

"We have been given orders by the council to take the shepard from you to be disposed of." one said.

Nihlus tightened his grip on Shepard. "Just try and take her." he growled and tensed his body to react as they started to pull out their guns. And then both of them dropped.

"That won't stun them for long, you better get going." Garrus said as he slid his gun back into his holster. "I want round two with her once she isn't injured." he said and stepped aside for Nihlus to board his ship.

"Thanks," Nihlus said as he moved into the decontamination room. "And… rethink the Spectre training." he said as the door slid shut.

Nihlus set Shepard down in the pilot's chair and leaned over her to hit several buttons that made the ship undock and start moving. He plotted a course to the Mass Relay and then looked down at Shepard. "You are a handful." he muttered and helped her up, guiding her to the mess down the hall. He set her down at the table and pulled out a pack of levo food and a pack of dextro food. Then he sat down in front of her. "Shepard's food." he said as he held up the levo pack. "Nihlus' food." he said and held up the other one. Then he mixed them up and set both in front of her.

She stared at him and then down at the packets. After a bit she reached for one, but it was the dextro and he smacked her hand. "Nihlus' food." he said and she picked the other one up and he nodded, hoping that was good enough for now that they do not eat the same things.

She ripped it open and started eating it and he stood up and went back to his pilot chair to guide the ship through the mass relay.

Shepard

Shepard watched him leave before pulling herself up and hopping after him. She looked out the window as she sucked on the crap Nihlus thought was supposed to be food. When the same structure that had started all this appeared she dropped the food and tried to move Nihlus' hands to reroute a course away from it, did he not know what it did?

He pushed her away and continued to guide the ship towards it. She gripped his chair as the rings started to spin and the center glowed and caught them, shooting them forward. Only there wasn't a jerk like last time, it was smooth, like they were by it one second and now they were in the middle of who knows where. She looked down a Nihlus and he cupped her cheek comforting, his other hand leaning down to pick up her packet of food and hand it to her.

Nihlus

That was a weird reaction, but he guessed the theory that her ship had stumbled across and accidently went through a mass relay was pretty much proven now. After safely through it he cupped her cheek to calm her down. Then reached down and picked up her food and handed it back to her.

"Don't worry, I'll keep you safe." he promised her.

**A/N: I wrote this whole chapter in less than two hours so if there are grammar mistakes I'm sorry, it's late and I don't feel like going through it again. Anyways sorry for the wait, I've been working a lot, but I have been giving this story a lot of thought and have panned out a good majority of it, now I just have to get time and string all of the plot together in writing. But enjoy and please review, I like the feedback.**


	5. Chapter 5

They traveled through space for several days, Nihlus not really having a destination, plus it seemed safer to keep Shepard away from others until he could communicate with her better. Her leg was healing very well, but he still tried to keep her off of her feet as much as possible. Which was not easy, every time he turned around she was on her feet doing something.

He heard her moving about from his pilot seat and sighed, pulling himself up and went down into the mess. "Shepard, where did you the idea that this was smart?" he asked as he saw her trying to scratch under her cast with a sharp two pronged fork.

She looked up at him as he took it away from her and took off his glove and slid his index talon under the cast and gently scratched her skin. She sighed as he soothed the itch and after a bit he removed his hand and put his glove back on. She said something to him that he was fairly sure was a thank you at this point.

"Okay let's get some of your language into the Omni-tool." he said as he picked her off the counter bridal style and set her back down at the table. He sat across from her and grabbed her hand, holding it up and pointed to it. "What is this?" he asked.

She blinked at him, looking at her hand for several seconds before answering. "Jeft?" she said and he recorded it on his omni-tool. They continued on, first with body parts, then when objects around the ship. It took most of the day, but he finally ran out of objects to ask her the name for. He wasn't sure how they were going to get some words, like verbs, and syntax was going to be hell. For now he just let her go back to her room and he went back to his pilot seat.

Right as he sat down his terminal blinked to tell him he was getting a call. He sighed and answered it, bringing up a holograph of the council.

"We are not pleased with you, Nihlus." the turian said. "You stunned three C-Sec officers that were under our orders and fled the Citadel."

Nihlus' mandibles flared slightly and his sub-harmonics vocalized his displeasure. "I did what you wanted me to; I got her off the Citadel and out of your hair. And, once we can communicate with her, I will bring her back and you will see she isn't some vicious animal."

"Well see," the turian said, knowing that Shepard wasn't a threat in the terminus and Nihlus wouldn't obey an order to bring her back anyways. Nihlus was very headstrong, he didn't like obeying an order he didn't like, but he and Saren were two of their top Spectres. There were no doubts that Nihlus got good results.

"You can keep her so long as she doesn't come into Citadel space." the asari said. "But it is not going to interfere or stop your duties; this is your hobby, not a mission."

Nihlus nodded in understanding.

"That being said there is a Blood Pack base that we need you to infiltrate and destroy. They have been creating some problems with transporting supplies, including food, weapons, and civilians." the salarian informed him.

"Slavers?" Nihlus asked and sat up a bit.

All three of them nodded, sent the coordinates, and disconnected.

He sighed and set a path to the coordinates before getting up to go get ready. "Estimate time of arrival in three hours." his ship informed him over the intercom.

Shepard

She felt the ship shift and got off of the bed to see what was up. They had just been drifting for days, so having the course changed was something new. She opened the door to her room in time to see Nihlus head down into the cargo bay. She followed him, hobbling as fast as she could.

He heard her and half turned, stopping to let her catch up. "What's going on?" she asked, and then remembered he couldn't understand her.

His mandibles flared a bit into a smile and ran his hand through her hair. He chirped something at her before he went over to a work bench and gathered up his weapons.

"Nihlus…" she said a little warily, watching him grab his pistol. When he didn't response she sighed and hopped up on the edge of the work bench and watched him meticulously clean his guns one by one. The similarity of it from the way she did before every mission or to calm down was reassuring, even if they couldn't understand each other, even if they were so different, there were some things different evolutions couldn't keep out.

Nihlus

He watched her catch up to him and could read the tension in her stance. She was smart to pick up that something was happening so fast. He brushed his hand through her hair—he knew the word for it now after their session of object naming. "It'll be alright, I'll protect you." he tried to sooth before continuing down to his work bench. People would think he was crazy for having his weapons laid out where Shepard could get ahold of them, hell they would think he was crazy for leaving his room unlocked at night, or the fact that unlike a lot of other turians he couldn't stand to sleep in his armor. He left weapons where Shepard could get them and made it to where she could get to him, but he trusted her and she never gave a reason to let that trust falter.

She said his name again when he picked up the pistol and he gave a low hum at the sound before he caught himself. Why did he enjoy the sound of his name on her lips so much? Sure he liked Asari, and Shepard did share several of the same characteristics, but to react like that? He swallowed a bit and started taking his guns apart and cleaned them, trying to take his mind off of the little pink alien with the gorgeous red hair. It didn't help when she hopped up on the table so he could even smell her. Clean, just clean the guns. After the mission he was going to have to dock and get laid, he was probably just too tense, need to burn off some steam.

He almost felt relieved when his ship informed him that they would touch down in twenty. He slid his guns in place and picked Shepard up, carrying her back up stairs and into her room. He set her on the bed and kneeled in front of her. "I will be back soon. Just stay on the ship." he told her and couldn't help his mandibles flaring into a smile when she jumped at the word ship. So the omni-tool's translator was working. He pressed his forward against hers for a split second before he got up and left.

He set the ship down on a cliff that they couldn't be seen on about a mile from the base. After rechecking all his weapons he left the ship and pulled out his sniper, using the scope to see what kind of defenses the base had.

He saw three krogan guards, one at each visible corner, two batarians on the roof. There were also four two man teams that circled around the base, always having one on each side. In addition, at the door there were two turian guards. Shooting his way in wasn't going to work, the mercs on the inside would be alerted before he could take all the guards out and they would either lock down or hunt for him, either way didn't leave him a good way to finish this mission. The best option would be for him to sneak his way inside and kill them from the inside out. Hopefully he wouldn't have to blow the place up, but he did have the charges if that because necessary and could place them as he went. That meant he needed a way in though.

Just as he finished sweeping the place a third time for any openings his omni-tool beeped, informing him of an incoming ship. He turned and saw a cargo ship about to fly overhead, it wouldn't see his ship tucked away in the rocks and it gave him an idea. He waited until it was nearly over head and shot a magnetic hook at it. It caught and he quickly hit the button that pulled him up to it by the wire connecting the two.

He stood on the back of the ship and started hacking into the cargo door. "Come on," he muttered as the ship neared the base. He could hear the mercs talking about the new stock of cargo over the thudding in his ears as the door lifted enough for him to slide under. It shut behind him and he moved to a crate that looked big enough to fit him and started hacking into the lock. He felt the ship touch down and urged the hack to go faster. It opened as he heard the code for the cargo door being typed in and quickly slid inside, barely fitting beside the food rations. The crate locked back and Nihlus allowed himself to breath for a moment as he waited for them to move the crate inside.

He wanted even after the footsteps faded, counting the seconds tick by. He thought back to Shepard on the ship, wondering what she was doing, if she was worrying about him. He sighed and shook his head and started to re-hack the crate, it finishing in just a few seconds since he had already hacked it once. There was a beep from the outside of the crate and it opened. He climbed out and stretched as he took in his surroundings.

They had taken the crate to a storage room for food, which was good because it was completely deserted. He pulled out his pistol and locked a silencer over the barrel, best to keep quiet for as long as possible. He went to the door, stood off to the side, and opened it. He waited for three seconds before popping his head out real quick. No one was there so he set a charge by the side of the door and then moved. He moved quickly and efficiently through the halls, taking out anyone he came across before they could sound an alarm, making sure to place charges at main structural points in the building.

Near the end of running through all the tunnels he stumbled on a control room. After taking out the guards he was halted in his progress by a picture on one of the big screens. It was a picture of a creature like Shepard. Could this be her crew? Could they be the ones who attacked her? He checked the door and quickly went over to one of the terminals, hacking into it and trying to find the information about the creature on the screen.

"Come on…" he muttered as he scanned through the data, trying to find the files of recent kidnappings. He found it and clicked it to download right as he felt a gun press against the back of his head under his cowl.

"Back away from the terminal and get on the ground." a krogan's voice said behind him.

Nihlus did what he said, his hands up. He turned around slowly to face the enemy and was greeted by his company of a dozen vorcha and batarians. "So many to deal with just one person?" Nihlus said. "I feel honored."

The krogan slammed the butt of the gun into Nihlus' jaw. "Don't play coy; we know you're a Spectre." Nihlus rubbed his jaw, making sure his mandible was okay. "And we know about your friend on your ship." Nihlus tensed up just slightly and the krogan smiled. "We have people in route to invite it to join us."

Nihlus' world slowed down, his heart beat thudding in his ears. And then he moved, slamming his fist into the side of the krogan's face. The others quickly opened fire on him and he ducked into cover and pulled out his pistol. They tried to close in on him but he just shut them all down, his adrenaline pounding in his veins, making everything seem slow, giving him the time needed to aim the perfect kill shot.

He shot the last merc and went over to the krogan who was bleeding on the floor from several bullet wounds. "I would take the time to kill you, but you aren't worth the time." Nihlus said and stuck a charge to the krogan's back where he couldn't reach it. The krogan yelled at him, trying to get to his feet, but he was still too injured. Nihlus didn't pay him any mind, though; he just kept running through the halls, shooting down any mercs that tried to stop him, stealth thrown to the wind. He finally found a door out and started back up the hill that his ship was on, feeling dread consume him that maybe he was too late. And then he felt the shot, a sniper bullet grazing his cheek and sinking into the head of a merc that was trying to sneak up behind him. The merc fell and Nihlus just stood there, wondering what the hell was holding the gun.

**A/N: Sorry for the wait guys, it's during the very crazy time of year where my summer job hasn't panned out and college has started so I'm currently working two jobs and going to 14 hours of school in high level classes. Anyways here is the chapter and if anyone is going to be at AWA this weekend (September 27****th****) I'll be there. Send me a PM and we can meet up, I'd love to meet some of you. As always thanks for your support.**


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